Synopsis

It's been six years since that summer adventure when Taichi Yagami and the rest of the DigiDestined crossed over to the Digital World. And nearly three years have passed since the final battle between Hikari Yagami's group and BelialVamdemon. As the peaceful days passed by, at some point the gate to the Digital World closed. Not even the DigiDestined know what caused this, and time alone continues to pass.

On one such day, a Kuwagamon suddenly appears in Odaiba. Its rampage leaves the town in ruins, and the people there in turmoil. Taichi happens to catch sight of the Kuwagamon, and he chases after it all by himself in an effort to halt its rampage. But there's nothing he can do against a Kuwagamon.

"It's no use... I can't do anything about this alone..."
Just as the Kuwagamon roars and attacks Taichi, his Digivice begins to emit a bright light...

"Taichi, look how big you've grown!"
With the sound of that nostalgic voice, the story once again begins to move in a big way.

Taichi Yagami, age 17; high school student.
The adventure now evolves once again.

I can't express my disappointment in this. Maybe my expectations were too high coming into this, although I lowered it after hearing some bad things about the studio that produced this, but it's unbelievable how some aspects seem to be WORSE than the show from ~15 years ago.

The story is interesting so far. We start out with the re-introduction of our characters excluding the Digimon 02 characters. (What happened to them anyways? What were those scenes in the beginning supposed to mean? We still have a few more parts left so I won't comment on it for now) Anyways there's also this secret agent group whom we'll hopefully get to know more about. We don't have a lot of information about what's going on and I think it's okay to leave it like that since this part is probably supposed to serve as an introduction for the main plot.

In contrast to this part's title "Reunion" which is supposed to be impactful for us viewers since the characters make a return after over a decade, the reunion I saw here didn't give me personally any feels. I also disliked how they only showed the reunion between 3 pairs and left out the rest. Anyways, the kids are teenagers now and of course a change in their thinking can be expected. Taichi, who used to be the courageous one and always lead the group into new battles, falls in an inner conflict which is totally fine. But then the final scene just completely nullifies Taichi's development as a character as he seems to show little emotion about the city's partial destruction and even letting Alphamon escape. Well if there's something interesting about the characters it would probably the potential formation of love interests.

The visuals in this show is also very appalling. A lot of still frames are to be seen and the characters' faces sometimes are weird. However, what disappoints me the most is how they didn't even bother animating the digimons' evolutions beyond the champion level. Like what were they thinking when they made this decision? I don't know if it's only me, but a big part of the nostalgia comes from the EPIC evolution scenes. Nevertheless, I think the battle scenes were pretty good although the lack of sound annoyed me a little bit. (just lots of boom & crash sounds) HOWEVER, the final battle was just absolutely trash. The build up was very nice with Taichi trying to overcome his inner conflict and you'd expect a really cool battle between our villain and Omegamon, but nah Agumon and Gabumon just digivolve one stage after another (WITHOUT BEING ANIMATED) after seeing that their attacks have no effect on Alphamon. Anyways we finally come to the battle between Alphamon and Omegamon! Sword and axe crossing each other 2 or 3 times and cannons being shot around 3 times and then Alphamon makes his way out and that's it. Yeah. No comment.

As for the sound, they used a remake of the original OP and some of the OST from the original show if I remember correctly and I found it very positive. The usage of instrumental of the song as the OST was also pretty nice.

All in all, though, it was still very disappointing and I hope to see something better in the upcoming parts of the movie.read more

Ah Digimon. Almost anyone who grew up watching anime will heard of this from somewhere. Even if you haven’t, Digimon is a series that was well-known when it first debuted. (and still is!) The franchise was introduced to the world that focuses on entities, known as Digital Monsters. These creatures are made of data that exists in their own parallel world known as the Digital World. However, their universe also crosses over the real world where chosen humans (known as Digidestined) are partnered with certain Digimon to fight against evil.

First things out of the way, this movie takes place after the second season also known as Digimon Adventures Season 2. Previous knowledge of the franchise is important to gain a better experience from watching the movie. This is because the kids that we’ve known from the previous seasons are back but also grown up. Their high school years takes them with a youthful development over their characters. And while all this seems normal at first, the story quickly turns abnormal.

The story itself is consistent with the premise and overall style of Digimon Adventures. Contrary to Digimon Tamers, it retains a lighthearted mood in the real world. Thus, expect some amusing comedy coming from the cast. We meet the main characters including Taichi, Yamato, Izumi, Mimi, Joe, etc. What I find appealing about them is that although they changed physically, they still retain their personalities and are the characters that we can continue to adore. Their relationships with one another implies there’s a growing feelings between a few pairs; in other words, beyond just childhood friendships. At the same time, the characters show what they’ve learned and are open minded with one another. That same can be applied to the Digimon partners as they still remember who they are and relationships remain strong despite the time skip. And that’s another prominent aspect of Digimon I really find enjoyable – the relationship between humans and non-human characters. It emphasizes how they can co-exist despite their different nature. And it also shows why exactly friendships can be so important between them no matter how long time has passed.

Despite the fine developments of the overall movie, there’s still problems I found that should be addressed. The introduction of a new female character is something that can be controversial especially since her personality isn’t anything unique. In the role of the movie, her presence lacks anything memorable for the role she plays. Speaking of characters, there’s some other prominent characters from the second season that seems to be omitted from the movie. The presence of a secret organization can be a fragment of what some fans can remember from Digimon Tamers. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be anything unique about them and in fact looks stereotypical. And finally, there’s a lack of coherence about the main threat of the movie. I mean, it’s hard to tell in the end what the characters are fighting for or against. Perhaps this could a better focus for the sequel.

Originally, I had some issues with the animation style after seeing the previews. However, I can say with confidence that the movie lives up to its promise to deliver action. Whether it’s in the real world or in digital style action, the performance is aesthetic and retains smooth choreography. In addition, the Digimon are also well designed with their original features. The parts with the Digi-evolution can be a mixed bag though when examined carefully but still is decent in overall terms of quality. The easiest part to notice is the different art style produced by Toei. It does have some lack of the old school feel when compared to the original series. After all, the kids have grown up and they have developed both mentally and physically. From my standpoint, the way the characters are designed can be easily attached to once you get into 10 or so minutes of the movie. It hardly is bothering as the movie itself retains the feel of what Digimon really was.

It’s more than a nostalgic trip. Digimon Adventures Tri: Saikai (Reunion) is here to remind us that the franchise is still going strong even after all those years of childhood memories. The Digidestineds are back from who they were before and their partners are here to kick some ass as well. What can be improved for the continuation (Chapter 2) should be the storytelling about the antagonists. And in addition, the new female character needs a bit more of characterization. But for now, this is definitely worth waiting for. After 15 years of Summer vacation, the kids are back.read more

I enjoy watching the first movie(episode 1-4),because I get to watch my childhood heroes again. I loved the character design and the sound track is very nostalgic. (love the new digivolving sequence, and didn't get tired of it at all). One of the things that I don't like about the first movie was that the story and character development is very lacking in terms of dynamic. There wasn't a moment in the whole movie where I was like, yep, this is what it meant to be. I love the fact they trying to emphasized on my favorite main character Tai, but I felt the story and conflict are very unjustifiable and dramatized. If you want to attract older audience, make the story darker and realistic, but if you want to attract younger audience, make the action scene more dynamic. From what I have seen, it's like they trying to balance these two elements only to barely pass in both of them. Speaking of action, I love the first fight scene between Greymon and Kuwagamon. But during the last fight, Gabumon and Agumon evolved to Omegamon in the course of 20 seconds makes my 23 year old common sense tingling. Why didn't they do that when they were fighting Kuwagamon....and the fight scene is developed way worse than when Greymon fight against Kuwagamon. It's suppose to be the fight of the movie, and they just rushed and telling the audience time is up, better luck next in the next movie. Overall, I give the first movie an 8/10, the art and sound is very good, the story and character, not so much. Then again, this is just the first movie, out of six. Movie 1 did not break me, and it does have a hook wanting me to watch for more. They still have rooms and opportunity to improve, so let's continue watching our childhood hero to grow up again. read more

Get on the hype train because the first chapter has been released and there are more to come(Six in total)

Story /10

Well we can't give a mark because this is the initial fragment and i tend to judge the hole story.This chapter reunites us with the Digimon Masters(or Digidestined) from the first series that appeared in 1999.
In this story the gates between the human and the digital world are opening where "mass data concentrates" are found.From these gates the so called "Infected Digimon's" appear and they go on a rampage.It's up to our heroes the Digidestined to save the day.

Art 8/10

The art is amazing.It was well done especially giving attention to the figures of the characters .
The CG(Computer Generated) animations are not overly used(at least in my opinion).
The contrast between backgrounds and characters is nicely balanced.

Sound /10

The sound.I can't judge it because i didn't dislike it nor like it.The voice acting was pretty ok.

Character 8/10

The characters are funny and lovable.Even if it's the first arc Yagami Taichi has a lot of development being the first one to mature.He knows that for each action there is a consequences.The story it's just beginning so there is room for more development for the characters ,as we can see there is already development between Ishida Yamato and Yagami Taichi.

Enjoyment 8/10

It was fun to watch even for the average viewer.The action scenes were entertaining and as i said the characters were lovable.
I hope to see the series continuing this way and not derailing. read more

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